EXCLUSIVE:  Next week we will know whether or not the Obama administration takes the protection of military voting rights very seriously.  Twelve jurisdictions have sought waivers from the new protections for military voters, including Maryland.  The new protections require states to send absentee ballots to overseas voters at least 45 days in advance.  On Monday, we will know which states obtained waivers. 

One state which certainly doesn’t deserve a waiver is Maryland.  The waiver application submitted by the state of Maryland is so disgraceful that it is inconceivable the waiver would be granted.  Instead of 45 days in advance, they want to send ballots to our overseas voters only 18 days before the election.  Well aren’t they restrained by state law, you ask?  Yes, but as I have noted earlier , Maryland has passed over 800 pieces of legislation since January, including lowering the age to register to vote to 16 and changing the distance from shore one can hunt ducks.  Apparently to the legislature in Maryland, ducks and teenagers are more important that airmen and rangers.

Election Law Center has exclusively obtained the shameful Maryland waiver application which can be read here.  Election Law Center has also exclusively obtained a letter from Maryland to the Department of Justice from April 2010 making it clear to Holder’s Justice Department that there was no way they were going to implement the MOVE Act.  If DOJ does not sue Maryland, immediately (assuming there is no chance this outlandish waiver request will be granted), then we will know that Eric Holder takes military voting rights as seriously as Maryland, which is to say, not at all.

The bottom line is this: every day that goes by next week that the Voting Section of the Department of Justice does not sue Maryland means it is more and more likely that soldiers and sailors (and Marines; h/t to S) will lose their voice in the upcoming election.  We have previously posted contact information for the Department’s Voting Section where citizens across the country (and world) can petition their government to snap to attention and do what is right and necessary to enforce the law.  The sooner the case is filed, the sooner a judge can order Maryland to treat our servicemembers better than they treat duck hunters and teenagers.

UPDATE:  A reader sends this odd update. “State elections board administrator Linda Lamone said Thursday that the Defense Department found Maryland in compliance with the new law’s mandate that states mail absentee ballots to military and other overseas voters at least 45 days ahead of a general election.”  We will monitor and report in what universe 18 > 45.